Friday, April 25, 2008

when i was home a few weeks ago i scored an old scrabble game my parents had in their garage. of course, with years of moving/traveling there were bound to be pieces missing. what better way to put the game to use... recycle it into a craft project. ta-da, my first batch of scrabble tile pendants. it's been a challenge finding the right paper but i managed to find a few i liked that translated well on such a small scale. they're a little less than an inch in both directions. all in all, very happy with the outcome!

aaron and i head west monday. aaron has his annual mohs meeting in vancouver next week. i decided to tag along and we decided to head out a few days early to catch tom and jamie in bellingham, wa. they're getting ready for the big move. i.e. house-hunting and whatnot. i'm excited about the trip and can't believe they're gonna be a whole continent away. i'm sure i'll have pics to share upon our return.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

yesterday we trekked up grandfather mountain with the pooches in tow. aaron's been wanting to hit the hill all month, but due to rainy weekends we haven't been able to go til now. (plus, during the month of april it only costs local residents $1 as opposed to $14, so you know we had to go.) here's aaron and the dogs at one of the scenic overlooks. you can see the rope we used to climb up the rock, it was that steep. surprisingly, the dogs were able to climb the rock without any difficulty. they must have a little billy goat in them. unfortunately, spring hasn't quite hit the high country yet. the weather was agreeable but it wasn't as scenic as it is when everything is in bloom. probably why it only costs $1 this month.

Monday, April 21, 2008

i've been on a mission to find a really ornate frame for as little as possible. i want to refinish it and give it a shabby-chic feel to house some embroidery i've been doing. it's proving to be a difficult task. i hit up three thrift stores and two antique malls and didn't find anything to my liking.

i did make one purchase. a crewel embroidered pillow. i picked it up for $10 and am thinking i can do something that would resemble the isabella fiore handbag i posted a few weeks ago that i absolutely love. i'm finding it difficult to even consider taking a pair of scissors to it. it's so lovely as is. i'll keep it on the back burner for now.

i did end up finding a plain frame on saturday. for now i'll distress it, give it a nice decorative mat and see how it turns out. it's not going to be completely what i wanted, but it'll have to do for now.

Friday, April 18, 2008

yesterday i ventured up the road behind our house in search of bottlecaps. there's usually no traffic on the road, maybe an occasional parker or two but for the most part it's pretty quiet. our neighbors had warned us that they've caught kids up there before so that's why they had placed a chain across the road to stop the trespassing.

well, as i got closer to the second empty lot, i could see something glimmering in the sunlight. this is what it was. a crack pipe or meth pipe, i don't know. it's some kind of smoking instrument. i brought it home to show aaron and he started to freak!

i was a little startled by his reaction. of course i knew he wasn't going to be happy, but i didn't think he would go into panic mode. "we should call the police. we can't have druggies hanging out around our house." well i come to find out he just read an article in our local paper about a murder that happened here a few years ago. it's a pretty gruesome crime, so i was beginning to understand aaron's frantic state.

we went back and dragged some logs across the road to prevent any further access up the road. we even found some 2x4s with nails in them to act as spike traps. now i have to contact the electric company about installing a security light at the end our our street. it's better to be safe than sorry.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

a memento from our first official date. i'm not too big on remembering actual dates. don't ask when our first kiss was or the moment we realized we were meant for each other. let's just make it easy on everyone and say april 15th was the day of everything!

not that we planned a special outing to celebrate the occasion. but we did venture down to hickory to watch a little minor league baseball last night. a little chilly, a very sparse crowd, and tons of cheesy activities to occupy our time. we were definitely entertained during the error-ridden game. the hickory crawdads lost to the lexington legends, 4-6. did i mention it was "all-you-can-eat" night. aaron took full advantage: two hot dogs, a hamburger, nachos, french fries, popcorn and two large sodas. and i was pretty much paying for it later!

Monday, April 14, 2008

i finally finished brian and irina's pillow set. i did two of each design. (you're only seeing one here.) they all have zipper closures, which are still a challenge for me. i changed the fabric they had originally picked out, monk cloth. i honestly don't know what you'd use that fabric for. it unravels as soon as it's cut, almost definitely needs a lining, and pretty much loses shape with it's loose weave.

i'm happy with how they turned out. it might be a little while before i start on their christmas set. yes, i when i got home last week they had the christmas fabric all picked out and ready to go. along with two more requests for mp3 pouches and a handbag for mom. i'm off the mail these and my jar of whimsies!

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

this has been my life for the past five days. if you've ever been to my parents house, one out of the five tvs has a korean soap opera playing. now the broadcasted korean channels have english subtitles. so i found myself engulfed in one the other afternoon. surprisingly the spoof is a pretty accurate depiction!

Thursday, April 03, 2008

of course, with aaron being a dermatologist i may have a somewhat skewed view on the subject. but seriously, this made me laugh out loud when i saw it on the news the other day. and when i saw the commercial, i barreled over with laughter. do they honestly think the american public is that naive? that hundreds of thousands of medical professionals don't know what they're talking about? too funny!

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

i finally busted out the gocco machine i bought months ago. i've been hoarding it, waiting for the perfect image to reproduce. (bulbs can only be used once and screens can not be cleaned and re exposed with a new image) knowing this, i may have never used it! well i decided to bite the bullet and find a decent image to give it a test run. i watched a few "how-to" videos this morning and this afternoon i started the presses.

this is the original image i got from istockphoto. it's a simple, clean image that i converted to grayscale. at first i had it completely black and white but i noticed while i was thumbing through the example booklet that came with the machine it had grayscale screens on some of the images. (all the instructions are in japanese, hence the video watching) so i went back and added a 30% and 50% screen on the trees. unfortunately, when i exposed the image, i lost all the grayscale screens. not sure if it can't do screens or if my screens were too light. i'll figure it out eventually.

the image is still decent so i went ahead with test run. i spread brown ink on the screen and began printing. it takes some getting used to. knowing how much ink to use and making sure it's spread evenly. i was able to print about 20 in the brown and after cleaning and reapplying red ink, printed about 20 more. i used the ink sparingly. it's supposed to print up to 80 with a good inking. all in all it was a good test run. now that i've started, i may not stop.